Untitled/No longer being published

by KC

BOOK HAS BEEN PULLED AND WILL NO LONGER BE PUBLISHED.

I profusely apologize for offending my ARC readers and fellow book lovers for how this book was received. I genuinely appreciate the feedback, no matter how harsh, and have learned a lot, as well as been served a very large helping of humble pie as I deserve.

Genres: Romantasy

747 pages, Kindle Edition

Reviews

[this_bookish_house · Rating 1 out of 5]

As another reviewer has mentioned, this book is nearly scene for scene, and character for character, a Fourth Wing clone.
From character histories, relationships, powers, and more.... this goes beyond being inspired by Fourth Wing... it's a copy.

[claudia reads it all · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cripes! This book is a cheap copy of Fourth Wing. Where are the editors and agents and publishers that okayed this book?

Violet Sorrengail becomes Vesper Sora. It's not her mom who is mean, it's her dad. It's not a parapet, it's a deadly climb. She has the chronic condition like Violet.

This is a generic-label Fourth Wing, only not as good, with smaller sentences, bad dialogue, and less developed characters.

If you like discount stores that sell off-brand copycats of well known items, this is the book for you.

[ReneeReads · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I wanted to read Fourth Wing again I would have. But this is not that even though it’s trying really hard, maybe a little too hard with all the similarities.

[Amy Lundberg · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a blatant copy of the 4th wing, other than the characters having outlandish hair colors it is disgustingly similar.

[Danielle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Complete copy scene by scene of Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. Written in a cringey anime form. Please do not support this book!

[Adrianna Heaney-velu · Rating 1 out of 5]

“Flames Unbound” by Kelsi Cripe was a copy of Fourth Wing terrible book. It had almost exactly everything from Fourth Wing but with things like names and colors changed. Instead of Violet its Vesper, blue hair instead of silver, both dragon riders, both book smart, both have disabilities, Kyrin instead of Xaden, Thane instead of Dane, mean father instead of mean mother, dead mother instead of dead father, she uses calculations to calm instead of historical facts to calm like Violet. It was a terrible knock off. I don’t know if this was a ChatGPT Ai book or what. 1 star out of 5 or 0 stars out of 5 if possible.

[Kim Murray · Rating 1 out of 5]

I decided to not complete this novel. I think I may have really enjoyed it but it had far to many similarities to Fourth Wing.

[Katrina Vincent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!!

Oh my goodness, I want to sink into book two RIGHT NOW! Kelsi writes intricate, complex characters in a vividly detailed world that grabs your attention and pushes you through hefty novels without you even realizing how long the books are. This is my second read from her and I wasn’t ready for either to end.

This was a wonderful, well-built story with lots of steamy scenes paced perfectly. You won’t regret picking this one up! Can’t wait for book two.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5! WOW. These details and world building?? A whole other place. I’m fine with large books but read through this so fast

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review, all thoughts/opinions above are my own!

[Leslie Fuller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Omg omg so twist of fate, I saw a tiktok of fanart from this book (breathtaking btw) and reached out to the author and she was about to send out arcs for this book and she asked if I wanted to be added to the list!!! I am sooooo glad I did. WOW.

I am still reeling from this book!!!! It really is combining Fourth Wing and ACOTAR into one really cool medley!! Plus I'm a huge fan of anime so how the characters all have physical attributes like anime was such a fun twist to fantasy!!! The character art is worth checking out too to help with reading this and visualizing the characters!!

I totally got the inspiration of FW in the beginning and I was like okay yeah, it's similar but there's such stark contrasts too that I see the inspo without it being like "this is just a FW knockoff."

NO WAY.

**Spoilers**
I want to dive into points that are like FW but how they're original with how Kelsi spun her own plot, oc's, and every detail into her own original story:
1. Vesper has what I think is Meniere's disease which has to do with an ear infection that causes chronic dizzy spells/ringing in the ears. Violet from FW has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS). Can we just have a moment to applaud fantasy repping chronic illnesses now as a thing??? I love that fantasy is now getting into chronic illness rep and making the MC's badass and able to overcome it!!!
2. Kyrin wields darkness/flames that are like shadows--and come on, we all love a Shadow Daddy trope. It's been done a lot in various big romantasy series so this is an awesome trope/magic that I'm always behind no matter what book it is! Later in the book, you realize that it's actually magick from the flames of infernal (aka their version of hell). Not like Xaden at all.
3. The beginning scene is like Violet attending Conscription Day but instead of Vesper volunteering for the "quadrant," their deity puts them into a secteur (sector) after they touch a bowl with magical seer stones. Such a cool concept and I love the correlation with Divergent where they bleed into the bowl for the faction they want to choose. These guys in Flames Unbound don't get to choose!! Destiny is chosen by their magical god, which is such a unique twist!!
4. There's a old friend, Thane, to Vesper who is kinda like Dain but instead of being protective and they both have a thing for each other like Violet and Dain do, this guy likes Vesper but she's been so lonely for friendship that she just wanted him as a friend! Plus, Thane is creepy whereas Dain is a little hot (at least his fanart on IG is xD)
5. Vesper's mom dies as an alchemist trying to cure Vesper of her illness when she was a little girl and her dad is the emperor's personal guard and is a total a** but may have a redemptive arc ahead of him (I certainly hope so, I'm a daddy's girl in rl). Not like Lilith or Vesper's dad, who also can teleport as his magic.
6. Violet spends her life with the scribes to become one. Vesper is forced away from her dad in the palace of the capital by studying nonstop and joining the palace alchemists to hopefully become one when Coruscate (the day they touch the seer stones) happens. So training in alchemy is not like being trapped in a library all day like Violet was until her mom "voluntold" her to go into the rider's quadrant. Vesper's dad AND HER SISTER WHO I HATE both are so cruel and mean about Vesper becoming a dragon trainee!! They're so unsupportive my heart hurt with Vesper. Complete opposite of Mira!
7. Vesper's magic is star wielding, which is so beautifully described and I'm jelly of it!! She's also specially blessed by Anslem (their version of god) with it in an epic scene that's one of my favorites in the book!!
8. The romance between Kyrin & Vesper is so breathtaking and thankfully so much more in-depth than what we got from Xaden & Violet in FW so far. Vesper is really unconfident and doubting of herself, but really smart/savvy while Violet is determined to make it and not let her illness stop her. Xaden is way more gruff/cold than Kyrin. I definitely see Kyrin more as a Rhysand/Four (from Divergent) than as a Xaden. He's so encouraging to Vesper and how you find out just how much he's done for her from the beginning later in the book!!!! I screamed during their odyssey in the peaks!! There are so many spoilers I could mention that reveal how different Kyrin is than Xaden but I don't want to give it all away!! But it's a Brennan is alive kinda big shock when Vesper finally learns everything!! That's allllll I'll say...

Okay comparisons over haha
The first couple chapters definitely give FW inspo but with their own unique spin and then the plot takes a sharp turn, especially the WORLD BUILDING!!! Holy cow, this is wild!! You definitely have to refer to the guides/charts in the beginning to help you navigate such a complex world of magic, words, and characters! So many characters and they're all so cool!
Veta and Erwen were my favorite characters (apart from yummy Kyrin and beautiful, self-deprecating Vesper) and the diversity is so vast, it's seriously impressive for this new indie author!
And towards the end, when Kyrin and Vesper go on their odyssey and have so many Rhysand/Feyre moments of love and connecting as soulmates (the dyad/fated mates plot was SO INTERESTING and DIFFERENT) is just...be still my heart and other unmentionables.
Yes, let's talk about THE SPICE. HOT TAMALE!!!!! It's so well done and not cringe or out of place. I love that this book uses spicy scenes to add to the plot and isn't just meaningless. I don't want to keep giving away all the spoilers, but the dyad and what it means with their deity...I NEED MORE.

Which brings me to the ending---WHY!!!!! NO. I NEED BOOK 2 NOW. YOU CAN'T LEAVE US LIKE THAT. Omg, I was on the edge of my sofa hyperventiating and the last line...I felt it all and I was just sitting in bed staring at the ceiling trying to get out of the world of Nyroria and I still can't.

This is such a beautifully complex world and so vividly described and has sprinklings of other series and settings while still being stand alone and honestly, I read this in a day and a half (stupid work haha) and when I read the Acknowledgements (I started doing that after seeing a tiktok go over how fun it is to read the personal thanks from authors) and Kelsi wrote this in 6 weeks...jaw. dropped.

Read this. If you love Fourth Wing, this will cure that hangover while we STILL wait for IF and I'm probably going to read it again after IF just to torture myself haha but it's one of those books where you can keep going back and pick it apart. Yes, there are totally easter eggs in this book and no one can tell me otherwise!!!

I'm so grateful I hopped onto the arc train right before it left! Thank you Kelsi for giving me this opportunity!!! PLEASE RELEASE BOOK 2 ASAP!!! I HATE HOW YOU ENDED IT CAUSE IT'S SO GOOD AND I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS!!!!

**All thoughts and opinions are my own**

[Abby · Rating 2 out of 5]

First and foremost, let me just say that I don't like leaving bad reviews and none of my opinions are meant to insult the author. However, Flames Unbound leaves much to be desired. (Also, I apologize now for the length of this review...just know it could've been so much longer).

I saw this book on Netgalley and it sounded very similar to Fourth Wing-a novel that I personally did not find to be as great as it was made out to be, but still gave me a desire to read dragon books-and I decided to give it a try.

As noted in many of the other reviews, Flames Unbound has some issues with plagiarism.
Let's start with the obvious: this was quite obviously based on Fourth Wing. The author claims that she started writing this in July of 2023, meaning she began the project at the peak of Fourth Wing's hype. (She also says she only spent two weeks editing...make of that what you will).
Instead of Violet Sorrengail, we have Vesper Sora, a book nerd with a chronic illness who is reluctantly tossed into Dragon War College and is well-known because one of her parents (in this case her dad) is famous. There, Vesper meets Kyrin, a moody, reclusive, but oh-so-sexy son of a rebel with the power to wield shadows... sound familiar?
Additionally, there's a character named Thane (instead of Dain), a small group of Vesper's friends who are hornier than any real teenager has any right to be, Vesper being nicknamed "Viper," Vesper having special hair and special magic and a special dragon, and that's just a few of the eerie similarities between Fourth Wing and Flames Unbound. I'd also like to point out that the writing style is extremely similar as well.
"The course was hard. Really f***ing hard."
"She was enraptured at how gorgeous and mysterious and untouchable this guy was. His stare alone gave off dark, brooding, don't-come-near-me vibes, but Vesper only wanted to get closer to uncover who this ambiguous, attractive, centurion was."
"Holy sh*t, what an exquisite male if she'd ever seen one. Her mouth may have actually started to f***ing water. What the f**k."
"The dreamiest, hottest guy to grace the Continent. As beautiful as he was intelligent, a delicious morsel of brain, brawn, and beauty, all wrapped up in a dark blue package---for her."
I'll spare you the rest of the quotes I highlighted (and there's a lot), but I'd also like to mention the other popular books/tropes that Flames Unbound steals.
Shadow and Bone ... Vesper has light magic and glows a silvery-white to counter her lover's shadow magic? Sounds like Alina and the Darkling...
Divergent ... in addition to Vesper falling for her mentor, there's a scene where some of her companions try to drown her out of jealousy but are caught by Kyrin. Sounds a lot like the scene where Tris is almost tossed into the water after being tied up in her sleep...
Not to mention the countless other tropes the book uses...

Oh, but Abby, it's not fair to judge a book based on other books. Nothing in this world is truly original!
Okay, fine. Let's discuss the parts of the book that were original.
Firstly, I didn't mention it above, but Vesper has blue hair. And so does Kyrin. Everybody has rainbow hair. Cool, I guess. I wrote a story about dragons with rainbow hair too...when I was twelve. Also, the only two people with blue hair end up as lovers? Sweet Home Alabama playing softly in the distance
Whatever. I can move past rainbow hair. But the lack of plot?
Vesper goes to dragon school...she does some fights, gets put in the Special Program for Special People, fights some more, goes to the capital, and then suddenly she's so in love with Kyrin that she makes babies with him every other chapter for the remainder of the book, starting at about 60%. I'm not kidding when I say that. Personally, I am not a fan of smutty books so I had my roommate and her friend read one of the many sex scenes and they only made it 3 pages in before they started dying and said it's the worst smut they've ever read, so... there's that.
Also ... the pheromone side plot... When Vesper and Kyrin have sex, apparently they release pheromones (like a bug?) that make everyone else horny. I'll give you one quote and then leave it at that:
"Blowjobs during lectures, sparring matches turning into dry humping romps. A straight up bacchnalia in the Equitem Secteur."
One of my biggest pet peeves in books is when they ramble on for what seems like forever and there's no clear progression of what needs to or what will happen. Flames Unbound is guilty of having that issue; Vesper doesn't seem to have a concrete goal besides "survive," which is great but there are not really many threats to her. Also, any plot that starts to form in the first half is quickly overridden by the pure smut that fills almost the entire second half.

Now, I can't go into too many more complaints because if I talked about every single one of my annotations, this review would never end. I do, however, want to end on a positive note.
This author has potential. There were scenes from this book that I did enjoy (Vesper's elixir being drugged by her sister to give her an addiction, the cliffhanger at the end, some of the soulmate stuff, tattoos, etc) . I don't believe that this book is going to end up being published, seeing as all of the ARCs were recalled, but I really hope that the author picks some concepts and themes out of this book to keep. She could probably keep the worldbuilding and play around with different characters/plots (as long as they're not carbon copies of Violet and Xaden) and people would really enjoy it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the free eARC.

[Diane Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

***ARC Review***

So I couldn't put this down. I had plans this weekend and canceled cause I had to know what happened at the end and I'm not okay!! This was an epic romantasy if I've ever read one.

I love love love the inspiration of Fourth Wing, Divergent, and ACOTAR and even a little Star wars mixed in there!! I just finished this so I now that I am newly into ARC reviewing I wanted to write it while it's still fresh and hurting so good (when is the next one coming out author!!).

First off, I saw that there's one stars saying this is a clone/"scene by scene" of Fourth Wing and I'm sorry, but they did NOT read this book past like chapter 3. There's similarities but it's in no way a copy! Definitely not a copy/clone when there are so many details that are absolutely not in FW at all (and I've read that book 6 times since June when I jumped on the tiktok trend).

ACOTAR is a Beauty and the Beast retelling, does that mean SJM cloned it? No. FW has been compared to Hunger Games/Divergent and that epic era of fiction, but does that mean it's the same as those books? No. I think that's really unfair to review like that when all the characters greatly differ from FW and the book does not follow the same plot/concept as FW by any stretch of the imagination.

Like Vesper has a chronic illness yeah, but it's not what Violet has. And Kyrin has a dark/shadow power, but so does Azriel in ACOMF, Billy in Tricky Magic, Blood Bonds, a Touch of Darkness...so another shadow wielding MMC isn't new or copying anything that other books don't also do. The family of Vesper is not like Violet's family AT ALL. Her friends are awesome and have great relationships with each other, but again, original characters that are not the same as FW.

They're dragon riders in training, the FMC has a chronic illness and the MMC has a shadow-like power. That's all the similarities you'll find with FW in this book.

Anyway, back to the jaw dropping world building and love and SPICE and the dragons!!!

Naedrys was by far my favorite character. Her snarkiness is great, but also her generosity is so touching. I loved when she made appearances. (Again, not at all like Tairn or Saegyl or Andarna).

Kyrin is if you combined Xaden's authority, Rhysand's epic love for Feyre, and Four's gentle stoicism into one dreamboat. And oh boy, he did not disappoint once the slow burn ended!

What I have to applaud is the world building above anything else. The complexity of Nyroria and the terms the author used for things (like using the latin derivation for lunch "prandium") was so refreshing and I love a book that makes my brain THINK. It makes me feel less guilty when I binge read! Everything about this book is so in-depth and I have to reread it cause I know I missed things, but also the little easter eggs that I think I found...I squealed! I'm going to buy a physical copy so I can annotate all of it because there are so many lines and hints for future events or implying things that I need to go back and find them all.

Seriously, I devoured this thing as fast as I could. If you need a new complex world after reading FW and having that awful book hangover that makes you reread FW over and over (I'm at 9x), then this book is for you! It's so well done and the writing is phenomenal. I will say, it's more well written than FW in terms of dialect, descriptions, and style. Even with it being in third POV, it was almost still like you were reading it in Vesper's POV.

I'm floored. I lost it at the cliffhanger at the end. I'm now going to read The Aureate Affairs, which I cannot believe my luck when I obsess over all things Pride & Prejudice/Bridgerton! Thank you to the author for this ARC! Read it. Ignore the one stars, they are not accurate. You won't regret falling into this seriously amazing saga!

[Paige · Rating 3 out of 5]

Flames Unbound
Kelsi Cripe
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Uninspired premise, but an intriguing story later on
The premise of this book was not original at all and it seemed like a lower-quality rip-off of Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing. There are so many similarities: dragon riders, a chronic illness, a parent who is a leader/prodigy, a brooding romantic interest who is the child of a rival. I struggled to get into the book because the first several chapters did not keep my attention, and I also wasn’t a fan of the writing style. Originally, I DNFed after the first couple of chapters.
However, later, I decided to give the book a second shot and was pleasantly surprised. After I got through the first few chapters, I actually started finding the book quite a bit more interesting. Once I made it past the first hundred pages, I actually was hooked and invested in the story. After I got deeper into the story, it did diverge a little more from Fourth Wing, which helped. I love watching the romance blossom between Vesper and Kyrin, and there were a lot of interesting twists in the plot. By the end, I actually really enjoyed the book, which really surprised me since my initial impression was negative.
Note: I received a free arc, but this review is voluntary and entirely my honest opinion of the book.

[May · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vesper is placed in the elite setion of dragon knights in training despite her chronic illness. Kyrin is the best dragon trainee and she helps her even though he's cold to everyone else.

Good and Bad things about this book: This does remind me a lot of The Fourth Wing: the dragons, the heroine's chronic illness, the cold parent and the hero's seemingly cold attitude.... Nevertheless, it's a fun book and the characters are interesting. I enjoy reading it and very curious how things will go in the sequel.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

[Katrina Hair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to netgalley for the arc.

This book took me quite a while to finish but wow what a ride it has been. To begin with it felt very YA but as time went on it became more complex and then as a relationship with the MC was built it became very very spicy. I am talking sometimes 8 pages long spicy. While i dont mind a bit of smut (it is very fashionable right now) for me this was a bit over the top and i dont think paring it back just a little would ruin the story at all. If you loved acotar and fourth wing you will adore this book. 4 stars from me!

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was soooo good. The love interest is 🔥🔥🔥. The world building was very in-depth so the glossary was helpful understanding everything. You could definitely tell the author took inspiration from fourth wing in the beginning which I loved because I loved that that book but this one was actually better and develops into a completely unique story! Can’t wait for book two.